I've been playing for 5 years now. Started with Metal as some people on here have, and have transitioned my way into Blues/Jazz with the years. I never had a teacher and was self-taught at the different scales, progressions, and chords shapes. I'm glad that I showed enough will power to keep pursuing guitar playing for these last 5 years but at the same time regret never understanding the proper terminology or theory when it came to guitar theory. Now comes my conundrum. I seem to have taken an interest in a certain jazz fusion player named Chris Poland. Some of you will remember him from his early Megadeth days. I'm not asking about what he did in his so called prime, but after. He's formed a band called OHM and they play Jazz fusion. What confuses me is his style of play. I'm finding it hard to analyze. My question is what would some of you guitarists or musicians recommend in such a situation. To make it clear, I've included a video at the bottom. Any input would be nice, whether it was scales or pointers.

you don't need to sit and analyze why he does every single thing - just transcribe and the answers will come naturally over time. figure out what he does, learn to do it yourself. his phrasing will start to feed into your head in a way words might not necessarily be able to break down. find similar musicians, or some of poland's influences, and just start working your way through.

i'm not talking about obsessively doing this for 2 weeks and getting burnt out like most people do with learning music, just learn slowly and do your normal practice routine around it. if you turn it into homework, it won't imbed itself and you won't really be able to tap into it so much as be able to regurgitate it.

do you understand fusion jazz, because as a style it is particularly complex style of music, you might want to study up on fusion, and just start by practicing the style, then go after the elements you want from this particular guitar player, you'll probably have to study up on jazz theory to get there

do you understand fusion jazz, because as a style it is particularly complex style of music, you might want to study up on fusion, and just start by practicing the style, then go after the elements you want from this particular guitar player, you'll probably have to study up on jazz theory to get there

sh he never comes back to argue a point when somebody disagrees with him don't let him get away with it

but jazz harmonic/melodic tendencies comes from learning jazz. not sitting in a classroom - you intuitively grasp it as you continue to consume yourself in it aurally and (through emulation on your instrument) technically. your ear is there for you to decipher any genre - not just jazz - and it's foolish to me to steer someone away from simply falling into the genre because it's "too hard"

I know more Poland from Megadeth and his Return To Metalopolis, but have you checked his Chasing The Sun album? It's a big part of his transition. I'd suggest learning "The Heavy Guitar Jam", has most of his aspects(Legato, chromatics, some chordwork & you'll get a good phrasing feel). That's as far as his "now" I can give. Though there's something important... the finger, man the finger.